Parish Bulletins

There are 68.2 million Catholics in the United States (22% of the U.S. population), and 1.07 billion Catholics in the world (17% of the population).

SAVE THE DATE

Annual Pancake Breakfast, Sunday Feb. 3rd

2018 Holy Days of Obligation

- Thursday, May 10 - Ascension of Jesus

- Wednesday, August 15 - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

- Thursday, November 1 - All Saints' Day

- Saturday, December 8 - Feast of the Immaculate Conception

- Tuesday, December 25 - Christmas

A Letter From The Pastor

SEPTEMBER 2012

Fifty years is a long time in one’s life. An amazing amount of things happen, people come and go, and changes sweep through life at a dizzying speeds. Sometimes we feel like we are being dragged along unwillingly, and at other times we feel left far behind everyone else. For example, you are almost required to have a cell phone to exist today, and if you don’t have an ‘I-pad’ you are an antique yourself. Then there were those people you depended on in most every way, and now they are gone from you.

There is one constant in our life, however, that gives us all a Center to hold on to, a Rock to cling to, a Direction to set our sails to, a firm Ground to stand on. That constant is JESUS CHRIST, and the sacramental life of the Church. HIS REAL PRESENCE AS LORD AND SAVIOR is all of our strength and purpose. HE give us our moral code, our inspiration for life, our courage to do the right thing, our ability to be humble and begin again by asking forgiveness for wrong choices. HE gives us salvation and everlasting life. Can you name anyone else who do all of that and more?

The LORD JESUS does for every generation what it can never do for itself, and that is give us the fullness of life. No government on Earth, no Corporation, no ruler of a nation, no massive military force has ever succeeded in the role of GOD OF THE UNIVERSE.

OUR GOD is all powerful, all forgiving, and all loving. OUR GOD is always but a prayer away, and leads us to all good things. From generation to generation HE has been the constant presence who refreshes and inspires, and promises to be there always. We in turn need to turn to HIM and bring our lives to HIM. Getting out of our selves and serving our Church and through the Church, others, brings us to a full and meaningful life.

Fifty years is not a long time from the perspective of eternity, or God’s perspective, but it is the time allotted us to do His will, give or take a few decades. We all get to that time of life when we look over our shoulders and say, “Wow, where did the time go”. How did I get to this point in life so fast (high school and college graduation, getting married, raising a family, having grandchildren, retiring). WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?

This coming year of 2013 is a perfect time for St. Richard Parish to reflect on “what it is all about”. As a Parish we will be 50 years old, founded at 12:01PM on February 27, 1963. That is the year President Kennedy sent the Medicaid Bill to Congress (passed after his death).That was the year that Valium and audio cassettes, lava lamps and the Beatles and Rolling Stones came on the market. That was the year that Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech, pushing down the ugly walls of segregation in America.

The Holy Father has declared the new year as “The Year of Faith “for the whole Church. It is time to bring ourselves and our community before the Lord, and take stock. We can look back at who we were and where we came from, but it is a time to look at who we want to be in the next fifty years as well. Where are we to go, what choices, what direction now?

Let us prepare to celebrate who we are and who we want to be, by the Lord’s standards, in our anniversary year. Let us leave no one out, but always be inviting and inclusive in our celebration. The LORD JESUS says as clearly now as in the beginning of His Church, COME FOLLOW ME.